Monday, October 31, 2011

Declaration of State of Telangana

The concepts of human rights, human dignity, self-rule and self-determination are quite modern.  Such concepts did not exist in the ancient world. Even if we were to find a glimpse of these concepts discussed in philosophies and texts of the ancients, we do not necessarily see its implementation as a comprehensive and extended practice to actually alter the lives of the people.

For thousands of years, man was born as a slave or subject and died as one.  Most of these slaves and subjects, sometimes even the landlords, did not possess any rights.  And the worst part is- most of them did not even realize that they possessed certain rights that are not necessarily ordained by their monarch.

Their assets, their property, their worth, their produce and even their self-respect, was up for grabs by their landlord, their king or an invading king or a marauding dacoit. Security was an expensive commodity.  The monarch provided meager security that was not even assured, and in return usurped all their rights. 

It took many centuries of struggle in certain parts of the world to come to a realization that man had certain ‘inalienable’ rights, which even the most powerful monarch could not take those away from him. 


Starting with Magna Carta of 1215 in England, which established that the law was above the king, through the Declaration of Independence of 1776 in America, which observed that all men are created equal, we got the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 in UN, which officially recognized the human rights as inviolable concept and gave people of mankind a right for self-determination.

The modern concept of free men coming together in social contract to form a government, empowering it with powerful institutions to govern them in return, is one of the greatest achievements of mankind that came about after millions of years of evolution.   In this framework, the rights are not granted by the state to the common men – they already have these rights which even the government cannot violate.  These common men decide which powers they want to give to their government depending on how judiciously that government uses them.

India inherited these modern concepts and modern institutions without going through the phases of actually struggling for it.  British colonialism had its unintended consequences- its colonies demanded the same treatment as English subjects who took pride in possessing certain rights as free men.  And through their struggles of fighting colonialism, some of the colonies inherited the modern institutions of their masters.  

It is important to appreciate the roots of these modern concepts because without that appreciation the state stands poised to usurp the rights of free men with impunity and the citizens do not even know that they are being oppressed.   Thomas Jefferson observed:

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers alone.  The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories.  And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved.

In the name of nationalism, in the name of patriotism, in the name of sacrificing a region to uphold the integration of the union, in the name of law and order, our nation has been suppressing the democratic, legitimate and innocuous aspirations of Telangana people for far too long.

It is unfortunate that New Delhi has been toying with the people of this region, resorting to subterfuge, prevarication, duplicity, and hypocrisy.  While New Delhi keeps repeating that Andhra Pradesh has to decide the fate of Telangana, Hyderabad keeps repeating that the Central Government has to take a decision.  In the whole process of tossing the ball across the court, Telangana is taken for a ride where its youth commits suicide on a daily basis. 

In no democracy on the planet would the legislators continue to serve even after submitting their resignations twice.  The fact that a resigning legislator is not allowed to relinquish his or her duty is tantamount to bonded labor and slavery.  That a democracy would not pay heed to such resignations and go about its job as if nothing has happened shows how low our democracy has descended. 

To understand the roots of modern democracy, let’s refer to the Declaration of Independence of American Colonies which was ratified on 4 July 1776.   It is a very interesting and profound document.  The statement: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…’ is considered one of the most famous sentences in English language.  Authored by Thomas Jefferson with inputs from Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, this document gained global reputation because it sets tone for emancipation of man from being a subject of a king to become a citizen with the responsibility of creating his/her own government.

Since New Delhi has decided to absolve itself of any responsibility to carve out the state of Telangana it is time we take this symbol step of declaring the state of Telangana as the wishes of 350 lakh Telangana people. 

[The following text is inspired from ‘Declaration of Independence’ of US Colonies of 1776.  Most of the original text is deliberately used verbatim to highlight how common their cause was with that of current Telangana.  Only the relevant texts that are applicable to the case of Telangana are changed from the original declaration.]

IN HYDERABAD, November 1, 2011
The unanimous Declaration of the State of Telangana

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal status to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a political setup, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of this region; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their current setup of Government. The history of the present Government of Andhra Pradesh is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this Region. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

  • It has reneged on the promises made in the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1956, nullifying one clause after another eventually leading to complete negation of the Agreement by 1969.
  • It has passed laws to dilute Mulki Rules to help Andhra people to come and take jobs that were safeguarded for people of Telangana.
  • It has brutally suppressed a people’s agitations in 1969 resulting in death of 370 Telangana people and injuring thousands.
  • It has broken the promises made in the Six-point Formula.
  • It has discriminated against people of Telangana in jobs, in opportunities, and in education.
  • It has denied due share of river waters to Telangana.
  • It has plundered our natural resources reducing the region as an internal colony to supply raw materials.
  • It has suppressed the political aspirations of the people of region reducing them to second-class citizens.
  • It has dissolved Legislative House repeatedly, thereby depriving the people of Telangana democratic forum, whenever the cause of Telangana was embraced by its political leaders seeking justice to the region.
  • It has allowed for overturning the Supreme Court decisions which were in favour of Telangana people.
  • It has obstructed passage of laws that sought to address the pains and travails of Telangana people.
  • It has sought to obliterate Telangana identity by disseminating false notions to young schoolchildren, and avoiding all references to history of Telangana in school and college education. 
  • It has arrested its leadership with impunity without warrants and imprisoned thousands of its youth without any legal recourse.
  • It has combined with leaders of Andhra and Rayalaseema to subject people of Telangana to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving its Assent to their Acts:
For toppling the first Chief Minister hailing from Telangana region;
For toppling the Governments headed by Chief Ministers from Telangana whenever Telangana tried to assert its rights;
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Government whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Andhra brethren.

  • We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their State legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
  • We have reminded them of the circumstances of our plight and conditions in the United State of Andhra Pradesh.
  • We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in Struggle, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the Telangana, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of Telangana, solemnly publish and declare,

That Telangana is, and of Right ought to be Free and Separate State in Republic of India; that it is Absolved from all Allegiance to the Seemandhra Government, and that all political connection between them and the State of Andhra Pradesh, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Separate State, they have full Power to do all Acts and Things which Separate States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

19 comments:

  1. Sujai, this is great. I second the motion and commend all Telangana people to suport this resolution. I hope the people's representatives as well as opinion leaders across all ssections of Telangana will assemble and formally adopt this resolution.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The delusions are crossing all the limits. See how many in Hyderabad will support this trash. We in Hyderabad do NOT want to be part of Telangana state, if it ever exists. Any attempts to forcibly merge us into Telangana will be dealt with same force that current 'movement' is taking.

    We have all the democratic right to elect our leaders and we, the people, have failed to elect good leaders. We, the people, voted not for the BEST candidate but voted for one who gave us more money before elections, who is from our caste and religion. We, the people, voted for leader who promised free stuff and who hurled abuses and lies at others to cover up his incompetence. We avoided voting most of the times and even when we voted, we did not care if our elected representative is solving our problems. We, the people, stood by and cheered him when he showed passion in resigning repeatedly but not resigning when no funds were allotted or no problems were solved in his constituency. We, the people, elected people who cared damn about the development but know how to blame others for it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ‘We hold the following truths to be self-evident’.
    1. All parts of AndhraPradesh except Hyderabad were equally neglected.
    2. All accents of AP are equally ridiculed.
    3. Indian Central Govt concentrates only on the development of the Capital cities.
    4. Democracy is like business and any decisions are done only if that decision helps his party to be in power.
    5. It is the responsibility of the political representative of every constituency to make sure his people are not cheated.
    6. All the politicians of AP cheated their people and will continue to cheat even after the state will be broken down into 100 pieces.
    7. There is no capable leader in Telengana.
    8. It is easy to write great sounding documents

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is time to declare our intent clearly to the rest of India. That it is not a political puppet show. That it is the sincere yearning of the people of Telangana to have their own state. Here it is for self-determination and being the masters of our own destiny!

    Jai Telangana!
    Prashanth

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maheshwar Reddy (Hanamkonda)November 02, 2011 12:19 AM

    Good effort...Reflects the emotions of the people....but misses on the logical aspects.

    The declaration says

    "...The history of the present Government of Andhra Pradesh is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this Region. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
    It has reneged on the promises made in the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1956, nullifying one clause after another eventually leading to complete negation of the Agreement by 1969. It has passed laws to dilute Mulki Rules to help Andhra people to come and take jobs that were safeguarded for people of Telangana. It has brutally suppressed a people’s agitations in 1969 resulting in death of 370 Telangana people and injuring thousands.... "


    The "It" used above refers to the present Goverment of Andhra Pradesh as stated in the first sentence quoted above.

    How is that the present Government of Andhra Pradesh is responsible for the actions of the State Government in 1956 or 1969 ?

    Subsequently the declaration even blames the present Government of Andhra Pradesh, which is came to existence after the 2009 elections, that it has toppled the previous Governments headed by Chief Ministers from Telangana.

    I think Sujai meant Andhra and Rayalaseema politicians and not the "present Government of Andhra Pradesh".

    I suggest that one of us (the readers of the blog) should volunteer to improve the declaration.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Maheshwar Reddy (Hanamkonda)November 02, 2011 12:19 AM

    Good effort...Reflects the emotions of the people....but misses on the logical aspects.

    The declaration says

    "...The history of the present Government of Andhra Pradesh is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this Region. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
    It has reneged on the promises made in the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1956, nullifying one clause after another eventually leading to complete negation of the Agreement by 1969. It has passed laws to dilute Mulki Rules to help Andhra people to come and take jobs that were safeguarded for people of Telangana. It has brutally suppressed a people’s agitations in 1969 resulting in death of 370 Telangana people and injuring thousands.... "


    The "It" used above refers to the present Goverment of Andhra Pradesh as stated in the first sentence quoted above.

    How is that the present Government of Andhra Pradesh is responsible for the actions of the State Government in 1956 or 1969 ?

    Subsequently the declaration even blames the present Government of Andhra Pradesh, which is came to existence after the 2009 elections, that it has toppled the previous Governments headed by Chief Ministers from Telangana.

    I think Sujai meant Andhra and Rayalaseema politicians and not the "present Government of Andhra Pradesh".

    I suggest that one of us (the readers of the blog) should volunteer to improve the declaration.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maheshwar Reddy:

    How is that the present Government of Andhra Pradesh is responsible for the actions of the State Government in 1956 or 1969 ?

    I used the 'Government of Andhra Pradesh' in the sense one uses British Government, British Rule, British Kingdom, British Crown, or British Empire.

    When we use that, we do not necessarily ask which viceroy was governing India, or if which King or Queen was ruling British Empire then, or if which Prime Minister in England was in power.

    We use these terms and words collectively though the people in charge, or in power, may have been changing.

    Hope that makes sense.

    ReplyDelete
  8. But the govt of AP always included 100+ reps from 'Telangana' region.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nobody suppressed you. There was no tyranny. You had a right to vote just the same as the rest of the state.

    Looks like you guys are a tad out of touch with reality. This is a democratic country. How come telangana people did not vote in more telangana CMs in all these years?

    Are you suggesting that there has been election fraud? Doesnt look like you are. These rants are becoming increasingly childish.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Please see http://edisatyam.blogspot.com/2011/11/1.html for an excellent satire on how the unemployed politicians conspired to form Andhra state in 1953

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sujai,

    Please read this - http://www.jstor.org/pss/2193757

    Can you also write about the forced occupation of Hyderabad state by police action?

    Why Hyd was split in to three states with out going through a referendum?


    Also, why Telangana CM was black mailed by Indian govt to merge in to Andhra.


    I am afraid there are a lot of unanswered questions why India had to be ruthless and kill more than 50000 people to occupy Hyd.

    Remember India promised autonomy to Hyd in 1948 but Nizam wanted it to be a separate country. Why India never gave us this autonomy?

    Why United Nations failed miserably to protect the people of hyderabad?

    Doesnt India still owe us a referendum? If Indians are peace loving people then they should let us choose our fate.

    Why no body talks about this?

    -Raj

    ReplyDelete
  12. The delusions are crossing all the limits. See how many in Hyderabad will support this trash. We in Hyderabad do NOT want to be part of Telangana state, if it ever exists. Any attempts to forcibly merge us into Telangana will be dealt with same force that current 'movement' is taking.

    No it shall be dealt with more force from the native Hyderabadis. We either want the old state of Hyderabad to be reinstated or we want a separate state like in Option 4. We do not want to be part of Telangana.

    ReplyDelete
  13. TELENGANA,
    TELENGANA was part of the then NIZAM STATE OF HYDERABAD.The city of Hyderabad was cosmopolitan city with five major languages (Urdu,Telugu, Kannada,Marathi, English), also some foreign,languages,like Persian.Arabic,french etc were spoken,written. Three regions that is TELENGANA,KARNATAKA,MAHARASHTRA.
    lived together,never fought among them selves.even though other nationals,but no fight among themselves.many decades all the people lived peace fully.
    After merging with RayalaSeema,
    Coastal regions. the first time TELUGU speaking are fighting.hating with same language
    why? Must be some reason? specially the Andhras think they are highly intelligent.arrogant
    the same reason they separated from MADRAS province NOW Chennai.the chennai city has 90%population was and is TELUGUS.
    right from 1952 they think they are the people who liberated the state from Nizam's rule.the same concept is not with other regions
    Maharashtra,Karnataka.
    this is enough to prove the behavior of the people from seem & coastal.As a matter of fact we have since mote than 100 years the Andhras are with us in project Nizamsagar.more over the industrilists like Birla's TATA's many MArwari's,Sindhis etc are settled, invested millions of ruppes.big factories are in the state. theytare not bothered. few persons who invested few lacks cry foul.these people acquired,illegal lands, they think the lands will be taken by TeleNGana.it is mere imagination.more over many times many agreements are made between two regions.broke them urgently.GETLEMENS agreement,MULKI rule,presidents order, many GO's which are never implemented.pretend they are implementing for few days,then forget.more over in the assembly the numbers game they are more nos. if the state has to with out presidents rule, if united andhra only.on the formation from first time from Madras, with in days the presidents rule was implemented.more over the financially it was in dole drums.the TElengana is having
    surplus money more than 100crores. now it is more.to day they are talking about manners,the way thy wrote against TAMILIANS u can see in papers.like ANDHRAPRABHA etc,.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It seems you feel that human rights and dignity exist only for telangana people.Otherwise how could you possibly put forward various reasons to support hooliganism that eventually led to the statue demolition on tank bund.Initially you said that statue demolition was first done by andhras..you forgot no statue that represented the culture and dignity was demolished any where except on tank bund.
    Then you got5 another brilliant idea and wondered whether the anger of the crowd was not against the statues or the persons the statues represent but against those who were responsible for erecting them!
    I think similar argument could be used to support 1)babri masjid demolition 2)WTC incident 3)bamiyan budha statue demolition.and all heinous crimes committed on this earth.
    You strain your brain to come up with a woman repeatedly raped argument.Where are you living sujai?If at all telangana is like the woman the blame squarely lies on the people of telangana who elected their own representatives all these days.Do not blame out side agencies for your deficiencies.
    A sane and rational person like sujai becomes completely irrational when he starts thinking about telangana.What a pity!

    ReplyDelete
  15. sujai !
    Are the human rights and dignity only applicable to certain people? No rights ,no dignity to the statues demolished on tank bund?
    First you started supporting the demolition by coming up with the argument that it was andhras who de3molish statues.But no statue that represented culture and dignity was treated this way any where.
    Then you came up with another brilliant argument.You wondered whether the anger of the mob was more directed towards those responsible for erecting them!
    Don't you think similar arguments could be made with reference to 1)babri masjid 2)WTC 3)bamiyan budha statues and many more heinous crimes?
    A sane and rational person like sujai suddenly becomes irrational whenever telangana is mentioned.What a pity!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I completely agree with SERA....

    ReplyDelete
  17. Maheshwar Reddy (Hanamkonda)November 13, 2011 11:55 PM

    Sujai,Your clarification on the "present Government" helped.

    Looking forward for your comments on Prime Minister's statement and Parakala Prabhakar incident.

    ReplyDelete
  18. rachanalu:

    Are the human rights and dignity only applicable to certain people? No rights ,no dignity to the statues demolished on tank bund?

    Yes.

    There are no ‘rights’ to the statues demolished on the tank bund. Statues are not human and therefore do not enjoy the rights as humans. Private property gets protection because it is attached to the humans as ‘possession’ – once again comes as rights of citizens. Public property lies with the state and there are laws to protect public property. But I am not aware of any rights enjoyed by statues.

    ReplyDelete

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